RH. HNO/cGMP-dependent antihypertrophic actions of isopropylamine-NONOate in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes: potential therapeutic advantages of HNO over NO˙. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 305: H365-H377, 2013. First published May 31, 2013 doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00495.2012 is a redox congener of NO˙. We now directly compare the antihypertrophic efficacy of HNO and NO˙donors in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes and compare their contributing mechanisms of actions in this setting. Isopropylamine-NONOate (IPA-NO) elicited concentrationdependent inhibition of endothelin-1 (ET1)-induced increases in cardiomyocyte size, with similar suppression of hypertrophic genes. Antihypertrophic IPA-NO actions were significantly attenuated by L-cysteine (HNO scavenger), Rp-8-pCTP-cGMPS (cGMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor), and 1-H-(1,2,4)-oxodiazolo-quinxaline-1-one [ODQ; to target soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC)] but were unaffected by carboxy-PTIO (NO˙scavenger) or CGRP8-37 (calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonist). Furthermore, IPA-NO significantly increased cardiomyocyte cGMP 3.5-fold (an L-cysteine-sensitive effect) and stimulated sGC activity threefold, without detectable NO˙release. IPA-NO also suppressed ET1-induced cardiomyocyte superoxide generation. The pure NO˙donor diethylamine-NONOate (DEA-NO) reproduced these IPA-NO actions but was sensitive to carboxy-PTIO rather than L-cysteine. Although IPA-NO stimulation of purified sGC was preserved under pyrogallol oxidant stress (in direct contrast to DEA-NO), cardiomyocyte sGC activity after either donor was attenuated by this stress. Excitingly IPA-NO also exhibited acute antihypertrophic actions in response to pressure overload in the intact heart. Together these data strongly suggest that IPA-NO protection against cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is independent of both NO˙and CGRP but rather utilizes novel HNO activation of cGMP signaling. Thus HNO acutely limits hypertrophy independently of NO˙, even under conditions of elevated superoxide. Development of longer-acting HNO donors may thus represent an attractive new strategy for the treatment of cardiac hypertrophy, as stand-alone and/or add-on therapy to standard care. cardiac hypertrophy; cGMP-dependent protein kinase; nitric oxide; nitroxyl; superoxide CURRENT PHARMACOTHERAPY FOR heart failure tends to delay, but not reverse, cardiac hypertrophy. We have previously shown that NOṡ ignaling is an important antihypertrophic mechanism in the heart (44). NO˙is, however, yet to be realized as a pharmacotherapy for cardiac hypertrophy, largely a consequence of limitations at the level of myocardial asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and NO synthase (NOS; Ref. 57). HNO, a redox sibling of NO˙, is a novel regulator of cardiovascular function (26,38). NO˙and HNO share several common cardiac and vascular protective actions, ranging from potent vasodilator (2, 10, 12-14, 22, 23, 59) and antiplatelet actions (3, 4) to, more recently, antihypertrophic actions in cardiomyocytes (31). These actions are all mediated predominantly via sGC (10...